Hardball In Ohio & The Lost Ballots

Hardball In Ohio & The Lost Ballots

Democrats May Lose Big with Brunner Senate
Bid

Ohio election
politics now rival the political hardball of Texas,
Illinois, and Florida at their best. As a result, the
state's Democratic Party may once again snatch defeat from
the jaws of victory in the 2010 election cycle. Through a
bid for the open United States Senate seat, the self
described election reform Secretary of State, Jennifer
Brunner puts two critical goals of Ohio Democrats at risk.

The first is the Senate seat held since 1999 by
Republican George V. Voinovich who announced plans to retire
at the end of his term this January. This provided a
short-lived advantage for a unified Senate candidacy by
Democrats. But the unity ended when the candidacy of Lt.
Governor Lee Fisher, the party favorite, was challenged by
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.

Election 2008 turned the tables on Ohio
Republicans. President Obama's 51 - 48% win inverted the
questionable 2004 outcome, the Bush 51% to 49% "win" over
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). Obama not only reversed the 2004
results, his 2.9 million vote total is the highest ever in
Ohio, a state with static population growth since 2000.

The Brunner candidacy threatens an Ohio Senate win by
Democrats in 2010.

The absence of a contested primary is
always preferred by either party. Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher (D)
has the solid endorsement of top Ohio Democrat
Gov. Ted Strickland. Strickland and Fisher ran as a team to
defeat the Republican Governor-Lt. Governor ticket 60% to
35%.

Brunner will divide the party in the primary
election. Those costs and efforts will reduce money for the
general election.

Ohio currently has 18 members of
Congress, with a ten to eight advantage for Democrats. Had
Brunner chosen to run for re-election as Secretary of State,
Democrats would have been virtually guaranteed an advantage
on the state Apportionment Board. With her departure,
control of the three member board would be up for grabs
should Republicans win the Secretary of State contest.

Brunner offers up a slow pitch for any future opponent by
holding onto her office as the chief elections official of
Ohio. She'll be running in a primary and general election
(if she wins the primary then resigns) that she's preparing
for right now as the chief elections official. Former
Republican Secretary of State Blackwell was severely criticized for massive conflict
of interest when he did the same thing in
2006.

Brunner's Record as Secretary of State and the
Lost Ballots

Jennifer Brunner was a local judge before
running for Ohio Secretary of State. She ran for and won
that office as a Democrat in 2006, part of a sweep of state
executive offices for the Democrats. She replaced J. Kenneth Blackwell, the most
controversial Secretary of State in any state for decades.
The resolutely partisan Blackwell ignored multiple warnings
that helped create a catastrophe in the 2004 presidential
election. This is well documented as was the pattern of election fraud throughout the country.

Brunner's qualifications for the United States Senate
seat depend largely on her record as Secretary of State.
How did she do?

Brunner promised a fair and open elections
program if elected. She was tested early. When a federal
judge ordered the collection of 2004 presidential ballots
from Ohio County election boards, 58 of 88 failed to return
some to all of their ballots. The ballots were to serve as
evidence of election fraud in a federal lawsuit underway in
the United States District Court, Southern District of Ohio
charging election fraud in the 2004 Ohio presidential
contest.

The defendants are J. Kenneth Blackwell, the
2004 state Republican Party Chairman, and major election
officials. After initiating the suit, attorneys for the
plaintiffs got a court order mandating retention of all 2004
presidential ballots. By Ohio and U.S. Code, these were to be retained for
22 months. The court order extended those dates by telling
election boards to preserve all ballots "unless and until
such time otherwise instructed by this Court." Each and every county
elections board received a copy of the order. But when it
was time to deliver, a majority of counties said they'd
lost, "inadvertently" destroyed, or in some other manner
discarded 1.8 million 2004 presidential ballots. This
compromised the law suit.

More importantly, it was a
massive show of defiance by county elections officials.

Many counties simply reported the ballots were no longer
available without any explanation. Other counties offered a
collection of excuses known as "the dog atemy homework letters." The elections
board in Allen County said the 2004 ballots were
“compromised by water damage and subsequently
destroyed.” Water damage was a popular theme. Holmes County said that the ballots fell
on a coffee pot "and broken glass (was) strewn throughout
the ballots. These ballots were destroyed later that
morning, as they were saturated and covered with glass." In
Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), hundreds of
thousand ballots were thought "lost." In an explanation
letter to Brunner explaining the sudden appearance of the
ballots, the acting elections director, in her own hand,
said, "These ballots had been found ("hidden" crossed out) in Cuyahoga's
Canal Street warehouse," she wrote.

The most instructive letter
came from a County prosecuting attorney, not the elections
board, who offered the
following:

"Unfortunately, the actual ballot
cards were inadvertently discarded and destroyed by the
Ashtabula County Board of Elections just prior to the
receipt by the Board of Judge Marbley’s Order and
subsequent directive to your office." Thomas Sartini,
Prosecuting Attorney, Ashtabula County Apr. 16,
2007

Did the prosecutor write this letter
because federal and state laws were violated by said
destruction?

This was a prime time opportunity for
Brunner to open up an investigation into the sorry state of
Ohio elections. What did she do? She offered this
statement shortly after hearing of the lost ballots.

Brunner was never asked to
explain how she could have any "evidence" without an
investigation. Brunner's comment about "how many people
were prevented from voting" makes little sense as an
alternative pursuit. It's "something you can't quantify,"
she said. What she failed to mention is that the widespread
illegal destruction of ballots prevented a major election
fraud case from answering that very question -- how many
citizens were prevented from voting or having their vote
count? If she wanted that question answered, she would have
demanded a thorough investigation of the county boards of
elections that didn't do their job.

Mocking
Democracy

The Democratic Party had a chance to live up
to the meaning of its name when Jennifer Brunner was elected
Secretary of State. The events of 2004, the ballot measures election of 2005, the
Hackett-Schmidt fiasco of 2005 and all the other well
documented election disasters cried out for a comprehensive
investigation. There was a Democrat committed to democracy
in charge. Surely there would be some justice.

Yet when
58 counties defied a federal judge's clear order to retain
ballots and, in many cases, Ohio and federal laws on ballot
retention, they got the endorsement of Ohio's elected
defender of democracy.

A court filing in the federal law suit in
Judge Marbley's court by the Ohio Election Justice Campaign (OEJC) (pp.
54-63) elaborated on the cynicism of the ballot
custodians. This is an email exchange on Sept. 7, 2007
regarding the failure to preserve 2004 ballots. These are
actual board of elections executives:

One
election official said: "Someone should tell them to give it
up."

Another responded: "I'm sorry. I'm just a little to
busy trying to figure out how the government killed John F.
Kennedy to deal with this."

OEJC continues to fight for recognition
that ballot destruction is a bottom line issue by those
charged with protecting the democratic rights of
voters.'

Democracy was mocked in Ohio by those obliged by
law to care for the election records when they lost or
destroyed evidence in a federal law suit. It was mocked by
the ridiculous excuses offered by those election boards that
bothered to explain their malfeasance. Democracy was mocked
when those who destroyed or lost ballots joked about it in
emails. It continues to be mocked by the Senate candidacy
of the chief elections official, Jennifer Brunner, who did
absolutely nothing about the massive defiance by the
58 county election boards that lost or destroyed the legally
mandated records of the 2004 presidential election. Some
champion of democracy, some Democrat.

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